Saturday, 18 September 2021 19:04

Roger and Me






ROGER & ME

US, 1989, 91 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Michael Moore.

Roger and Me is a documentary. Audiences would be surprised winning documentary on Flint, Michigan, and General Motors plants there with layoffs of over 30,000 people and the p of the city could also be very funny. But it is.

Roger is Roger Smith head of General Motors who symbolises the ruthlessness (with smooth platitudes) of Capitalistic free enterprise.

Me is Michael Moore, former Truth-style Journalist from Flint who chronicles the eccentricities of the American way of life in Flint as well as the social justice issues of the shutdown and treatment as he tries to interview Roger Smith.

Moore uses old film clips, public figures including President Reagan and Pat Boone, media personalities, PR personnel and a range of citizens to great effect. But underlying it all are the real questions of the American dream (and an extraordinary number of optimistic US cliches mouthed), human dignity and opportunities, the right to work, frustration and poverty. Commentators were surprised when it didn’t' receive an Oscar nomination for 1989 - perhaps a bit close to the bone. That all changed with the Cannes award and Oscar in 2002 for his Bowling for Columbine. He excelled this with the Golden Palm and a box-office of over $120,000,000 for Fahrenheit 9/11 (though it was not Oscar-nominated).

1. The acclaim and critical comment on the documentary? Popular documentary for American audiences?

2. The documentary style, point, message, criticism, significance of humour? Fair or not?

3. The background of the opening newsreel footage, contrast with the 80s? and collapses? The use of the insertion of newsreels? Michigan and its environs? Its past, the celebration of General Motors? Flint in its heyday, the changes? The 80s hopes of factories, homes, office blocks, the arts? newsreel material, commercials, television footage?

4. The skill with the editing, pace? with stock material? Songs, speeches? Moore's quest for Smith? Blending these?

5. The personality of Michael Moore, his appearance, background in Flint, his journalism and exposes, the humorous ironies of his career and lack of success? The decision to make the film, its purpose, the raising of money - even from bingo clubs? His wanting to see Roger Smith and interview him? His final plea? A Portrait of Flint, a portrait of Moore?

6. Roger Smith and General Motors, the tycoons and their decisions, the ruthlessness? Smith's personality? His subordinate offices, the PR personal and the way they protected Smith, the way they communicated? Keeping Moore out? Meetings and conventions? Smith's final Santa Claus speech and its cliches and goodwill? Smith as condemned? Fair or not?

7. The people of Flint, the interviews, the changes and their experience? Black and white, poor and wealthy? The sheriff and the evictions, the story of the poor people being evicted? The contrast with the wealthy, the golf courses, the used as human statues?

8. The background of Pat Boone's involvement in advertising General Motors? Anita Bryant and her reputation, her intervention in Flint? The importance of religion in the US, religion helping people to get over crisis - and Robert Schuler being invited, his words and persuading people? Ronald Reagan and his meeting the people in Flint? Miss Michigan and her cliches? Her hopes for the future - and her becoming Miss America? The use of songs and advertising?

9. The deputy sheriff, black, former employee of General Motors? Doing his job? The evictions - and his relationship with the people being evicted?

10. The unions, the parades, the speakers? The sequence of the last car off the assembly line?

11. The lady with the rabbits, as a character, the comment on flint and its showing her, her caging of the rabbits, her skill in slaughtering them, selling them? The woman who is selling make-up, seeing her on her rounds, the heavy humour in watching her demonstrate her wares, the explanation of the colours and the seasons - and the irony of her phone call to say she was misled?

12. Civic hopes, speeches, the Mayor, politicians, the Governor of Michigan hotels and theme parks? Their collapse?

13. Themes of American capitalism, get up and go, the employment and unemployment questions, wealth and poverty? The importance of capitalism and the making of money by industry - no matter what the cost for people?

14. The film tracing Moore's quest for meeting Roger Smith as a framework for offering insights into Flint? The interpretation of this American experience?



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